>> thanks, john. >> we should also note there will be a first son, barron trump. a cnn special report, history made, the legacy of michelle obama. that airs tonight 9:00 eastern. explore the first lady's journey from chicago to the world stage. 9:00 eastern only on cnn. "inside politics" with john king starts now. >> thank you very much, john berman, and welcome to "inside politics. e "i'm john king. thanks for sharing your time with us today. we are just one week, one week, from the trump inaugural, and those steps behind me donald trump will be sworn in one week from today as the 45th president of the united states. one week we assume, then, not only with full republicans in washington, but maybe we start to get some answers about vital questions about this new administration. for starters, who has the upper

hand on russia policy? the candidate and campaign who praised vladimir putin, can he down play cyber meddling or the tough-talking man who is about to lead the trump team? >> it's very clear about what took place here, about russian involvement in efforts to hack information and to have an impact on american democracy. i'm very clear about what that intelligence report says. immigration policy, another huge question. candidate trump, you know this, he promised a wall and mass deportations, but the retired general he has tapped to enforce immigration policy, he has different ideas. as does the republican speaker of the house. >> do you think that i should be deported and many families many my situation? >> no. >> no. first of all, i can see that you love your daughter, and you are a nice person who has a great future ahead of you, and i hope your future is here. >> plus, one week left.

president obama isn't done making waves. conservatives don't like a new twist in cuba policy and whatever your politics, an emotional tribute to vice president joe biden is worth another peek. >> about six months in president looked at me and said, you know, joe, you know what surprised me? we've become such good friends. i said surprised you? that is candid obama. and it's real, and, mr. president, you know as long as there's breath in me, i will be there for you, and my whole family will be. i know it is reciprocal. and i want to thank you all so very, very, very much. >> with us to share the reporting and their insights this friday, julie pace, associated press, cnn jeff zellay, abby phillips of the washington post, and margaret

kala of bloomberg politics. at a time of uncertainty, this much we do know. the spy novel atmosphere that dominated the end of the presidential campaign will carry over at least into the early months of 2017 and the new trump administration. a few quick examples just today. the washington post reports the president-elect's controversial choice for national security advisor made several calls to the russian ambassador to the united states just as the obama administration was imposing new sanctions against the kremlin for its election interference. now to the foreign policy professionals. that's taboo. add in flynn's perceived russia history, and those comments stir suspicions among critics. team trump says that laughable. the calls were just to express condolences after a couple of tragedies in russia and to lay the ground work for a trump-putin phone call. they say the sanctions were not discussed. trump himself stirring the spy sega anew in his morning twitter performance. this a day after his spokesman

said the president-elect wanted to move on and focus on major policy decisions, are and this is important. one of the many fascinating wrinkles in the big trump cabinet confirmation hearings yesterday was listening to the nominees for defense secretary and director of central intelligence sound alarms about russia and its cyber meddling. in stark contrast to the tone of their new boss. >> this was an aggressive action taken by the senior leadership inside of russia. >> i have very, very high degree of confidence in our intelligence community. >> i would consider the principal threats to start with russia. >> and so at the close of this big week in washington transitions often give us clarity. confirmation hearings give us clarity about how a president takes the hundreds of things he says in a campaign and narrows them down to the four or five things he will focus on out of the box. who is in charge of russia policy? and what is it? >> that's a great question.

you hear these officials going up to capitol hill and being very clear about their skepticism of russia, their confidence in the u.s. intelligence agencies. at the press conference with president-elect trump earlier this week, we basically had to yank out of him just an acknowledgment that he believes that russia was behind the hacking. then he later also said but it could have been other people. i think that this question about how he will approach russia not just in terms of whether he will keep sanctions in place, on cyber, but how he will deal with them on ukraine and how he will deal with them on syria will dominate, as well as the question of why he seems to be so favorable toward putin. >> to your point, he -- donald trump tweets this morning. we heard -- you just heard there from general mattis and mike pompeo. very tough words and clear-eyed about who vladimir putin in is and what russia's intentions are in the world, and how it wants to undermine the united states. all of my cabinet nominees are looking good and doing a great job. trump says i want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine, right? all is fine. then he also tweets this morning, though, things that

undermine what they just said to congress. he goes on about this whole fake news made up by sleazebag political operatives, both democrats and republicans, fake news. russia says nothing exists as if we're supposed to believe russia is a credible source of what is right or wrong or true or false in the world. then he goes on probably released by intelligence, and intelligence is in quotation marks again. something donald trump has done repeatedly in his tweets. released by intelligence even knowing there is no proof and never will be. there goes donald trump again attacking or undermight being, questioning, give me the right word, the intelligence community a day after his top national security team people say these guys are great, i trust them. >> that's why mike pompeo, the congressman, has a tough job. he is the nominee to lead the cia, and yesterday really throughout the course of the hearing he was a man who looked to me like he was trying to explain the president-elect and put distance between himself. he has to be confirmed here.

there's much more skepticism about moscow and putin's involvement than there is in trump tower. mike pompeo was clearly making the case that there is respect for the intelligence agency, but, boy, he is someone if he is confirmed, which it looks like he will be, inheriting a job that is very difficult. morale incredibly low. tweets like this certainly don't help the matter at all. it's not a long-term and sustainable situation for any administration, and i think that going into this we have to continue to assume that the president is the top of the totem poll here. his word is the over-arching theme for the direction of all the agencies underneath him, and regardless of who is being said at these hearings, which are largely designed to reassure members on the hill, both moderate republicans and democrats, the direction of the administration is going to be

coming from donald trump and even to the extent that his cabinet secretaries may disdegree on individual issues, i don't think you can take that as a sign that things are suddenly going to be different from the words that are coming out of donald trump's mouth. >> transition is one thing, margaret, but an administration is something else. what happens if this continues after a week from now? this hour a week from now donald trump becomes president of the united states. what happens if a week, a day, a month into the administration general mattis, then secretary mattis at the pentagon, is telling his german counterparts and his british counterparts this is our policy towards russia, and then donald trump says something completely different or if mike pompeo is in meetings with his russian -- the president of the united states says something completely different. >> obviously that's problematic, but the task for republicans at hand right now is to decide whether or not they want to gum up any of these confirmations for president-elect trump or accept these people and for them put marco rubio aside for just a brief moment, but for everybody else, what they have is some

important clarity, which is to say that rex tillerson, pompeo, and mattis are all willing to take their own firm stance where their own reputation where the rubber meets the road about how they feel about aggression at the border, you know, and inside of ukraine, about the iran nuclear deal, about any return to anything akin to waterboarding. they have all drawn their lines in the sand. if someone has to be confirmed in any event to be the secretary of state, to be the defense secretary, to be the cia chief, these performances this week, by and large, are giving republicans and even some democrats a pretty good degree of confidence. the question is mike flynn, i think, in that role as national security advisor, and how strong his word and his chain of command to donald trump will be vee visa vi some of these. >> have the idea that you have

someone so influential steps away from the oval office that isn't going through this vetting i think is as concerning to some republicans as the confidence that they're getting from mattis, tillerson, pompeo. >> when you taken to mainstream republicans, they weren't trump supporters to begin with. they're still skeptical about the president-elect. we need to be honest about that. when you talk about general mattis, mike pompeo, democrats and republicans say this is great. even if we disagree, he is bringing in grown up experienced people in the government. this is a conspiracy. when you bring up general flynn, people say he is crazy, he is nuts, he is a conspiracy theo theoris theorists. does he actually listen to the advice from his cabinet secretaries, and i think we have to give him the benefit of the doubt that he will. we have seen he listens to a lot

of advice, but he picked these strong men for a reason. i think you have to think that he is open to changing his view, but proximity to power in this town is very, very important, and mike flynn may be the person who has the president's ear the last. that's an interesting -- >> to the president-elect's credit, if he wants to bring in a bunch of people -- he wants to have great debates and policy debates with smart, experienced people, and it's his call at the end. as we've seen throughout the transition, the republican establishment and leadership is trying to nudge trump. a lot of people think he doesn't want to get into this russia conversation because he thinks people are trying to undermine his victory. people are somehow trying to say he didn't win fair and square. delegitimizing him. most people are saying put that behind you, sir. listen to the house speaker paul ryan in a cnn town hall last night making clear when you bring up russia, he is very skeptical of mr. putin.

>> donald trump won fair and square clearly and convincingly, but the fact that a foreign government tried to meddle in another government's election is wrong, and so i do think sanctions are called for. i think we have to step up our game. >> that's what the republican establishment has been waiting for the president-elect to say. you mentioned -- at his news conference he said i think russia did and, and then he said other people do it too, and he downplayed it. >> i do think you can see in some ways as this has gone on some of the reasons why there's so much paranoia within the trump camp. they feel like day after day they are the victims of leaks coming from "the intelligence

world." there is something happening here where people in the intelligence community are trying to tell him something, but the more that that's happening, i think the more it's creating a huge rift with him. >> the statement james clapper said the other night essentially confirmed cnn reporting that the trurp campaign was disputing. there's some clear tension within the family. >> interesting, either reigning in or at least recasting publicly of mike flynn's role or public persona. we saw earlier this week -- they call it passing the baton to two national security advisors. they meet together on stage. he was very careful to put his arm around susan rice, hug her, tell madeleine albright how much -- and say almost nothing of substance about his policy on

russia. >> important week ahead. still important rest of the hour to get through here. next, new information on just how republicans plan to repeal and replace obama care and the clearer sign yet, republican leaders in congress want what you might call a kinder, gentler approach to immigration reform than the new president. delsym helps control the impulse to cough for 12 hours. which means, you're controlling your cough on your morning commute. and later when you're joking with beth... even when most cough medicines stop, delsym is still working. delsym. the #1 12-hour cough medicine.

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a very unconventional president. >> said it with a straight face too. that's house speaker paul ryan speaking at a cnn town hall. the house leader plans to join the senate today in paving the way to repeal the affordable care act, but one goal of the speaker at last night's event was to assure people who rely on obama care they won't face months of uncertainty or coverage lapses. >> we want to advance repeeling this law with its replacement at the same time we don't have a date. >> first 100 days. >> it's definitely a plan within the first 100 days to get moving on this legislation. >> planning on the first 100 days to get moving on this legislation. as the democrats learned when they were trying to pass this, wanting to do something and doing something when it comes to something so complicated and

coraling your own sheep, republicans have different views from democrats, but democrats had essentially the reverse problem the republicans are having now because this so divides the party and the republicans are also boxed in by their president-elect, who during the campaign said i like the most popular, the most expensive parts of obama care. >> that's the thing. expensive here. we are hearing a lot of proposals coming ouch trump tower. a lot of ideas. the cost of this is really going to be a central issue. about how much all this is going to cost. you also on health care have the industry. the outside groups. they are very worried about this. health insurance companies, drug companies, et cetera. they are big players at the table on this here. i think speaker ryan, a few cavats that 100 days maybe get it going. the idea of this being totally done, repeal and replace 100 days, almost no one thinks that can happen.

health care is not something that happens in isolation, and trump himself has not detailed in what he wants to see in a plan besides keeping the easy things. things that are popular. he has not detailed how he wants to pay for changes. he has not guaranteed that people who have coverage under obama care will continue to have coverage under his new plan. i think we need to see more details on his administration, and it will be interesting to see whether he is going to put forward something on his own or whether he is going to rely on republicans. suggested he was going to put an immigration plan forward. he never did that. >> they are also saying -- the president wants a multi-billion dollar infrastructure plan, but doesn't want to do it with federal money. the fiscal conservatives are alarmed, and then you have the

moderates. listen to charlie, moderate republican from pennsylvania. a guy whose seat is in safe distance. >> i think the repeal plan needs to be fully developed and better articulated prior to moving forward. i have some reservations about moving as quickly as we are if we don't provide a credible replacement plan. my main concern is that there would not be any gaps in coverages for people certainly subsidized and also concerned about how the insurance markets might react. snoo you see the problem for speaker ryan. how does he appease, satisfy -- keep the fiscal conservatives in line and now we're just talking about the house. then it goes to the senate where it's a52-48, which to get to the replace part, and they'll need democratic votes. >> the process here is really important. republicans like the idea of

going piece by piece repeeling and replacing bits of them a little bit at a time, but for people who are facing re-election, that's a huge problem. what if they don't get to the whole thing by the time they have to run for re-election again? that can pose an enormous problem because the market can react to all these little piecemeal things happening. that's the part of it that republican leadership seems to think is really the only way forward. they have a hard time looking at a gigantic bill and seeing that being able to get enough support all at one time. they're in a real bind. it's hard to figure out how to balance the two things. the key here is the details of the replacement have to kind of be on the table so people can evaluate the whole process is easy and feasible. >> over the next few months or maybe the next two years there are going to be developments in the story, there are going to be, like, you know, provisions or plans or amendments. the central, like, program meter

will the same. if you want to keep health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions, for women with woman-related issues for children up to age 26, the money has to come from somewhere, or you have to limit those benefits. in the end that's the decision. if this goes on for two years, then it will be eight years that people have had these benefits. >> and if you do it the same way that democrats do it, if you pass an all republican replacement now, the problem is when you make a mistake and you inevitably make a mistake. it's just because it's so big and kbliktd, the democrats couldn't go back and fix obama care because republicans -- if republicans -- guess what, i suspect the democrats will say it's trump care now, and you own it. let's move to another big issue. we know in the campaign if donald trump was clear on anything, it was he was going to be much tougher when it comes to imgra igs policy. he talked about in 1950 style deportation force like using the eisenhower administration. we all know he talked about the wall. his choice to lead the homeland

security department general kelly said, well, i don't know about this barrier thing. he says in his experience fighting wars, a single barrier isn't necessarily a good defense. you need multiple layers and multiple complexities. we'll see how the wall plays out. listen to paul ryan, the speaker of the house. he has tried to figure out immigration for several years. listen p to him last night, though, when he was specifically asked at this town hall, am i going to be deported? >> do you think that i should be deported in many families in my situation? >> no. first of all, i can see that you love your daughter, and you are a nice person who has a great future ahead of you. i hope your future is here. >> when people get confidence in this country that our border is secured, that our laws are being enforced i believe all people in the country will be able to fix thornier, bigger problems. if you are worried about some deportation force coming knocking on your door, don't

worry about that. >> he says that's not going to happen. >> that was particularly fascinating. i don't know that woman's entire story, and we don't know what kind of provision trump and republicans might come up for with the dreamers, but when obama did his second round of executive actions, he specifically did not put a provision in there to protect parents of dreamers, those who were coming into the country at a young age. that's a more liberal policy than what obama has had. republicans face the reality of being in power is that you have to make decisions that affect real people, and you own those decisions, and they'll see women like this, parents like this over and over again as they go through this process. where. >> we are in a fascinating moment. we sometimes say messy debate. they don't have the answers. in some ways that's good too. if we have an open debate about

these things going forward, it could be interesting and fun and potentially maybe get us some compromise i think they call it. i haven't heard that in this town. up next, president obama makes another dramatic change to cuba policy, and he reflects on what he could have done better. tech: don't let a cracked windshield ruin your plans. trust safelite. with safelite's exclusive "on my way text"... you'll know exactly when we'll be there. giving you more time for what matters most. (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace. approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company come in.

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. welcome back. president obama has no more big events or speeches planned for his final week in office, but he isn't quite done yet. still planning a few more executive actions and still trying to shape reviews of what he got right and where he thinks he failed. >> because this is on me. part of the job description is also shaping public opinion, says and we were very effective, and i was very effective in shaping public opinion around my campaigns, but there were big stretches while governing where even though we were doing the right thing we weren't able to mobilize public opinion firmly enough behind us to weaken the resolve of the republicans to stop opposing us or to cooperate

with us. there were times during my presidency where i lost the p.r. battle. >> what do we make of candidate president obama saying i'm a good campaigner, but i didn't get the communication part, convincing the american people, governing part down right? >> he is speaking to the historians here, as he often does, because what he is saying is i was right. i just didn't show it in the moment. that's a different thing than saying the idea was wrong or weak or ill-formed or i made a misstep. >> it's classic obama sort of ism, i guess. he is speaking to the history books. he always wants to convince people that his idea is the right idea, that he just didn't sell it right, and he wasn't sort of selling him down the river there, his p.r. team. he believes that people weren't -- if you could have ten more minutes to talk about it, certainly people would come to his point of view. the reality here is history we don't know exactly how it will be viewed. it's autoo quick in the moment.

he did lose the p.r. battle. the question is on the substance. was he wrong on the substance on this? it's instructorive for the trump people about how they write obama care. the balance between the white house and the hill coming into sharp view for the first time in ten years, of course. republicans control house senate and the white house. >> the part of that that i think he is right about is the idea that he always seems to float a little bit above his party both in terms of approval, his ability to get re-elected, his ability to sort of hold on to power over the course of eight years whereas democrats writ large have not. the whole party from everything below him has seen losses over the course of eight years, so there is in some ways a p.r. problem or a messaging problem where the american public are willing to accept him, maybe him personally, but are not willing to accept the idea behind his policies and the people that he needs in order to continue them into the future. >> speaking of policies, he gave

the farewell address earlier in the week, and everyone said that's sort of it. he is going to step back and yield, but he is not. he is trying to put his fingerprints or footprints or whatever you want to call it, some big policy changes, including a big cuba shift yesterday. the current policy in the united states was if you escape cuba and get in a boat and your foot touches u.s. soil, you're allowed stay. pretty dramatic for the president of the united states with one week left in office to say never mind. i'm reversing that policy. part of his outreach to cuba, but conservatives and including a lot of democrats, some democrats, bob menendez, a senator, cuban-american, today's announcement will not only serve to tighten the noose the castro regime has around the neck of its own people. congress was not consulted prior to this announcement with nine days left. the obama administration seeks to pursue engagement with the castro regime at the cost of ignoring the present state of torture and oppression and its systematic curtailment of freedom. that's from a democrat. >> the politics on cuba are always so fascinating because you have democrats who sound

more like republicans on this issue. particularly those who have family ties to cuba. the policy is effective immediately. as of today if you are a cuban who is trying to come to the united states over land, through the mexican border or by sea and you arrive here, you will be turned away. there is, of course, a political asylum policy, so if you do feel like you're going to go back to cuba and be tortured, you can apply for asylum, but this is something that happened in secret, which was the way a lot of the cuba policy happened. the administration says that they did that because they didn't want to spark an exodus from cuba if people were expecting that the policy change happened. this is basically a dhs rule change. i'm not sure trump is going to want to fight this battle, though. he will have so much else on his plate. also, in talking to administration officials, they think that they can box him in on this by saying essentially we are trying to stop the flow of immigration, which is something trump has talked about as well. >> it's very similar to me to what the boil administration did around israel, publically

reprimanding israel for its settlements. it's something they did kind of in secret without communicating with democrats or republicans on the hill, and it was something that they knew was going to spark a political firestorm, but they're doing it at the end because obama wants to lay down a kind of marker about what he stands for, what he believes in. he can only do that in this period of time. >> it's an interesting day in washington. we talk about the soon to be former president doing sthingz as he leaves to try to essentially set some things in place that are hard for trump to reverse. he says he is doing trump a favor. i suspect it's trump transition headquarters that might have a different view. as we speak, there are a number of senior trump officials, people from the campaign who are now coming into the white house, senior staff, that are having a transition drill at the white house today. the chief of staff will hang out with the chief of staff. the press secretary will hang out with the press secretary. they'll go through some of the motions of what a trump presidency will be, how the white house operates. that's one week from today. they've all paraded in. does the president-elect have a political problem? this is polling from gallop. they ask how is the president-elect handling his

transition? if you look at the -- it's a net negative seven. more people disapprove of how president-elect trump is handling it than approve. obama was wildly -- everybody said is he doing great. plus 71. clinton plus 50. for a guy who won the election fair and square but did lose the popular vote, does that number -- that means he has lost ground. if you look deeper, it's especially among independents. has the president-elect failed from election day to today to try to reach out to those people that didn't vote for him? >> you're acting like he is trying to reach out to the people who didn't vote for him, but did. >> he has not made it a priority. you're being polite, i guess. >> this is -- it's not like he is trying -- it's not like he has a campaign like this blitz campaign to bring everyone together. he still is tweeting about how hillary clinton is lucky she's not in jail.

>> there is that. >> is there a change on january 20th or not. it's completely within his power to change these numbers. it's very easy to change the numbers. it might be difficult to get to plus 71, but to flip across that 50% threshold, the answer is obvious. he is a smart man, so clearly he doesn't want to. he has decided this is not a priority of him to do this, and we'll see. maybe he is -- he won the election, so everyone says, oh, the strategy is crazy. this strategy is stupid. he is about to be president of the united states. we will see what the end game is there. up next the president-elect says he is glad his cabinet choice is speaking their minds on issue ranging from china to public housing. does he agree with this em? sick, huh? i'm good. i just took new mucinex clear and cool.

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share the joy of real cream... ...with reddi-wip. >> welcome back. in the spirit of understatement that is sweeping washington, i will say fbi director james comey is having an interesting week.

cnn is told, for example, that comehe y said that they had information that russia is in possession of compromising information about the president-elect. that's just one of jim comey's interesting exchanges. then there was this. when comey, twice in the presidential election made comments about the hillary clinton e-mail investigation was asked if the fbi is now looking into allegations that trump loyalists had some election related contacts with russian officials. >> mr. comey, did you answer senator's question that there is an investigation underway as to connections between either the political campaigns and the russians? >> i didn't say one way or another. >> you didn't say that -- >> that was my intention at least. >> you didn't say one way or another whether even if there's an investigation underway? >> correct. especially in a public forum, we never confirm or deny pending investigations. i'm not saying -- >> the irony of your making that statement here, i cannot avoid, but i'll move on.

>> no relation to senator king, but i agree. that statement is -- is beyond delicious. now comey himself is the focus of an investigation. the justice department inspector general says he will review whether the fbi violated agency procedures in its handling of the clinton e-mail probe. the "wall street journal" editorial board today saying jim comey has to go. that's a conservative editorial board. democrats on the senate side last night on the house side today coming out of these private meetings in which director comey is explaining things to them saying they're outraged and he has to go. will he go? >> that is one of the questions we didn't get to ask at trump's press conference. i really wish we had been able to pose that to him. he can get rid of the fbi director if he so chooses. the fact that comey could have been the one that brought this report that trump is so outraged about to him perhaps opens up that possibility. just in talking to democrats, though, the last day or two they are just beside themselves over the comment that he made to senator king about not talking about an investigation, and i

think it's fair for comey to answer this question. if you actually can't do that, if you don't believe that that is your role as fbi director, then why did you feel comfortable doing that so late in the presidential campaign? >> it's great remembering when james comey was named to this position, everyone thought it was sort of a stroke of brilliance that obama had found this moderate republican who was known as a straight shooter, nonpolitical. he was known as someone who really didn't get bogged down in some of these controversies -- political controversies that had dogged other ag's like eric holder, for example. here we have james comey really at the center of, you know, a year and a half's worth of controversy both involving the soon to be president-elect, hillary clinton, barack obama. he is in -- on an island really by himself acting in ways that is pretty much angering everybody around him. >> he told democrats in the

meeting yesterday to the point of discussing publicly the clinton administration. he said he had a horrible choice and terrible choice, and he chose what he thought was the least of his most horrible choices between keeping it private and leaking it out. as democrats air those grievances, the election is over. the inauguration is a week from today. what does donald trump think about jim comey? will he keep him? you read into this, if you wish. donald trump tweeting this morning about this. why are hillary clinton's people complaining about -- what are hillary clinton's people complaining about with respect to the fbi sf based on the information they had. she should have never been allow the to run. they were very nice to her. she lost because she campaigned in the wrong states. no enthusiasm. for many of us the election is over. you know, you can't -- he is jumping into the fray here because he likes to be in the mix when he knows these stories are going to be discussed. that's part of, know, trump trademark. it doesn't tell us really what he thinks -- what he thinks about jim comey. >> it doesn't at all. we do not know the relationship.

when those two men who together in that briefing, we don't know. i do know talking to people in the fbi that james comey has more support inside the bureau than outside of the bureau, it seems like, and he has no plans of leaving at this point. >> seven years left, something like that? >> something like that. we'll see what donald trump does. i would be surprised if he removes him and replace him. it's a year of surprises. who knows? >> that's -- it's a great question. again, you mentioned another context. it is a lot in front of him right now. his number one priority is economic growth. number two priority is probably bringing clarity to some of these big questions, governing questions, but the fbi director, he is having an interesting week. i think that's a fair statement. our reporters share next, including a record-breaking $90 million pouring in for president-elect's inauguration. where will all that money go? what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever? heart healthy california walnuts. the best simple veggie dish ever? heart healthy california walnuts.

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>> we fill this table with reporters every day and close by asking them to share a little bit from their neat books to help you get ahead of the big political news. julie pace. >> trump's inaugural team is boasting about the record-breaking amount of money that they're raising for next week's big event. $90 million. to put that in perspective, that's roughly twiesz as much as barack obama raised for his 2009 inauguration, but the question is where is all of this money going to go given that the trump inaugural team has talked about holding fewer balls than obama did and shortening the parade to about 90 minutes. in theory the extra money left over is supposed to go to charity and given the question around trump's charity donations, particularly by one of abby's colleagues at the washington post, you'll see a lot of folks in this town looking for answers on extra inaugural cash. >> i was going to make a joke about the cost of a cocktail at the trump holtel. >> we've heard a lot. a week from today behind us here

on the west front of the capitol he will be giving his inaugural address. i am told he has been preparing and studying by watching old addresses and reading old addresses. ronald reagan's john f. kennedy's, and, yes, president obama's. particularly his 2009 address. about what he said and the reaction from the vast audience on the mall. he and his small circle of advisors have been working on this address. i'm told it is going to be or at least intended to be much more optimistic than the last big address he gave at the republican convention in cleveland. this is going to be something that he uses and sees as a branding moment, and i'm also told it will be much shorter. he realizes that an audience has only certain time of staying power here. we'll see if he brings that to bear. one week from today, that address, he will be hig the books and watching old addresses, i'm told. >> it's interesting. whatever your politics, an inauguration is a moment of majesty here. the weather forecast is good. the site behind us is beautiful. we wish the president-elect well as he gets ready for his

address. abby. >> well, there's been a lot of talk about the ways in which trump and democrats are going to hold hands and work together on infrastructure and maybe child care and paid family leave issues, but there's also a way in which trump has to do things in a conservative way in order to get republicans on board, and that might prove to be a poison pill for democrats. there's a lot of talk right now about privatization, especially when it comes to infrastructure. roads and bridges, but also the federal aviation administration. there's been some talk on the hill about privatizing that agency. some democrats are going to look at that from an idealogical perspective and say there's no way. we'll see how far trump is able to go with that and whether or not he is able to resolve some of those conflicts in order to get the democrats on his side in areas where republicans have made it pretty clear they're very, very skept. >> one week from today. the fun starts. margaret. >> we spent a lot of time talking about who is going to influence donald trump in his cabinet. is it going to be mike flynn?

basically where does the buck stop? mike pence is another one of those people to watch, and i had the pleasure of spending about an hour yesterday with a handful of reporters in a west wing interview with joe biden. i was surprised at the extent to which joe biden has been connecting with mike pence both in writing in terms of memos, memos on iraq, memos on ukraine, memos on how he deals with foreign leaders, and also in just terms of personal conversations. mike pence doesn't have a national security advisor or hasn't up until now, and so it's pence and biden engaging one-on-one. they seem like certainly an odd couple, and biden himself said that he disagrees really strongly with mike pence on a lot of social domestic policy, but when it comes to getting along in person, he says he is a solid guy. he likes him very much. they like each other. i would expect that relationship to continue and be one to watch in terms of shaping pence's view on how to be vice president. >> he is a good public servant. i was going to say something else. i'm going to close with this, where it's time to say good-bye

to joe biden, and mike pence would be smart to reach out to the vice president. not on policy. they disagree, but joe biden knows how this town works. quick break for us. i hope to see you sunday morning. we'll have fun then too. jim schudo in for wolf after a quick break. tech: don't let a cracked windshield ruin your plans. trust safelite. with safelite's exclusive "on my way text"... you'll know exactly when we'll be there. giving you more time for what matters most. (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace. uh, you asked to see me, coffee? yeah, listen, sugar, we're, uh... lettin' you go. wait, what? people love sweet taste.

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skblienchts hello. i'm jim schudo. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. in just seven days donald trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the united states right behind us here in front of the capitol. plans are being put in place to repeal and replace obama care. in about two hours the house is voting on a budget resolution that lays the ground work for repealing the affordable care act. president-elect took to twitter